Sunspots and Sun Storms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 4

Sunspots and Sun Storms - Essay Example Sunspots occur in groups and appear and disappear at certain times. The sun could have hundreds of them sometimes and at other times only have a few. A sunspot can last between one and a hundred days. When they appear as a group, the sunspots can last approximately 50 days. Compared to the average surface temperature of the sun 6000 º Celsius, the sunspots are about 1500 º Celsius and can last from a few hours to a few months. In diameter, the sunspots can be as large as 80,000 km and as they move across the sun’s surface, they expand and contract. They can be explained as regions on the sun with strong magnetic field strengths that appear often in pairs that are aligned in an east to west direction and are thousands of times stronger if compared to the magnetic field of Earth. This implies that the rising magnetic tubes flux that breaks past the sun’s surface form the sunspots. In a simulation of the initial condition shows that there is a horizontal uniform layer of the magnetic field, in a stably stratified fluid, that is subject to a small perturbation. One of the factors that cause sunspots is intense magnetic fields such that sunspots occur in pairs and the magnetic field comes from one and enters into another one. The magnetic fields that are inside the sunspots are 1000 times stronger compared to those surrounding the undisturbed areas. The magnetic layer is unstable due to its buoyant nature, so out of its layers, the magnetic flux can rise. The center of a sunspot, mainly the dark spot is called the umbra; the magnetic fields are highest in this area. The striated area around the umbra, which is less dark, is called the penumbra. As seen from earth, it takes the sunspots 27 days to make a complete rotation, since they rotate with the solar surface. Near the Suns, equator sunspots rotate at a faster rate than those near the solar poles.  Ã‚